The Irrawaddy
December 7, 2005

Environmentalist warn that a power plant project scheduled to be endorsed by Burma and Thailand on Friday holds financial risks and also poses a threat to the livelihoods of people living in the region. The project involving the construction of five hydroelectric plants on Burma’s Salween River is to be endorsed in a memorandum of understanding between the Rangoon government and the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat). Egat’s chief executive officer, Kraisi Karnasuta, said on Monday that the energy ministers of Thailand and Burma would witness the signing ceremony. Witoon Permwongsacharoen, an environmentalist from the Foundation for Ecological Recovery, an environmental organization based in Bangkok, told The Irrawaddy that the project represented a high risk investment, besides posing a grave threat to the livelihoods of people living in the region where the dams are to be built. “The situation of Egat is not stable at this time, nor is the Burmese military government stable for doing business,” Witoon said, pointing out that Burma is the subject of international boycotts. There would be an adversary effect on Thailand if Egat went ahead with the project, he said. Satarn Cheewawichaipong, an environmentalist who works in Sob Mei, in northern Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province, said the construction of the planned dams would involve a diversion of the Salween River that would endanger the livelihoods of people in the region, both within Burma’s Karen State and in Thailand. No account had been taken of local concerns, he said. An official of EarthRight International, which is concerned with environmental issues in Burma, said the Salween River project had not been subject to the normally-required environment and social impact assessment. The first of the five hydro-electric plants initially planned by Burma and Egat – Hat Hyi dam in Karen State near Mae Sot, on the Thai-Burma border – will take up to six years to build and have capacity of 1,200 megawatts. The five plants will have a combined capacity of 10,000 megawatts. Thailand says the plants are necessary to ensure adequate energy supplies in the region.